Gomez says Markey call to refuse outside funding 'hypocritical'

The morning after his GOP primary win, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez challenged Democratic nominee U.S. Rep. Edward Markey to three debates and vowed not to take part in a "people's pledge" to limit outside spending on the race.

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

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Posted May. 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 1, 2013 at 1:14 AM

Posted May. 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 1, 2013 at 1:14 AM

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The morning after his GOP primary win, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez challenged Democratic nominee U.S. Rep. Edward Markey to three debates and vowed not to take part in a "people's pledge" to limit outside spending on the race.

"Let's be honest about it, you know politicians make pledges because no one trusts them and I think it's kind of the height of hypocrisy when Congressman Markey, who's been taking outside money for the last 30 years from groups he regulates and has control over, and now he wants to ask me to do the same thing?" Gomez told reporters Wednesday morning after greeting commuters outside South Boston's Broadway MBTA station.

In last fall's Senate election, former Republican Sen. Scott Brown and Sen. Elizabeth Warren made a compact aimed at not allowing third party groups to spend money to influence the race.

"I've been clear from day one, and that is I will only take one pledge and that's the pledge I took when I was a naval officer and that's to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. It's the same pledge my parents took when they came here to become citizens and it's the pledge that I make to the people of Massachusetts," Gomez said.

Gomez told reporters his victory validates the message he and his supporters have known since the beginning of his campaign. That message, Gomez said, has broad appeal to both Republicans and Democrats.

Referring to Markey, Gomez said, "There couldn't be a better poster boy for term limits than Congressman Markey. This is somebody who when he first ran and got elected said he'd serve two terms self-imposed, while I think we're now on his 19th or 20th term and he's been down there since 1976," Gomez said.

While shaking hands with commuters shuffling in and out of the station, Gomez sported a fatigue-green U.S. Navy jacket he said was he had not washed since the late 1980s, as a naval tradition for good luck.